A wide variety of signals and related protocols exist for the use of radio frequency (RF) signals in communication systems and other devices, such as radar systems. A commonly desired characteristic for both communications and radar applications is to have a spread spectrum signal that is hard to intercept. Spread spectrum solutions utilize signals that are spread across a relatively wide spectral range of frequencies and, therefore, often have reduced interference and higher degrees of security than narrow band solutions.
One common approach to spread spectrum is frequency hopping. In a frequency hopping solution, the transmit/receive signals are moved around or hopped to different frequencies within a wide spectral range of frequencies. One practical limitation experienced by spread spectrum solutions, including spread spectrum frequency hopping solutions, is that the total frequency spread across a frequency spectrum is practically limited by the bandwidth of the circuitry being utilized. For example, receiver bandwidth is often limited by the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) performance of the digitizing circuitry within the receiver. An extremely wide bandwidth ADC (analog-to-digital converter), for example, typically results in unacceptably low SNR.